Famous Technical Writers

Amy
Tan, who wrote the
"Joy Luck Club" once worked at Nortel Networks as a
Technical Writer.

John Steinbeck who wrote "Log from the Sea of Corte".

Tina, the tech writer, from Dilbert.

Miscellaneous Comments About Famous Technical Writers

"Well, the standard
model of "fame" as it refers to a specific profession

depends
on how much a person's work penetrates into the common body ofknowledge
all people in the profession are expected to have. Therefore,"fame"
only really occurs if your discipline has a strong academic presence.I could guarantee you all particle physicists, for
example, can tell you whoSchrodinger was, because
they all had to learn about him as part of theirschoolwork."

"How about a little broader -- technical communicators. I feel
that the

greatest technical communicators of all
time are Ed Yourdon and Tom DeMarco(of structured
systems analysis fame).

"However,
I base my criteria forfame on whose books/papers
we read/studied in my graduate technical writingprogram.
The authors that I would consider famous are those whosebooks/papers
I wasn't tempted to sleep through (and those who have beenpublished
often). I realize that I consider these people famous, but othersmight not. Joann Hackos would definitely be on my list.
Other members of my"famous" list are:John Carroll, Paul Anderson,
Carolyn Rude, Robert Johnson,Carolyn Miller, Rachel Spilka"

"I'd say first

of all, our own Eric J.
Ray, for starters.... (*see HTML for Dummies). Then
add Peter Kent ("Making $$ in Tech writing)... Laura LeMay (Webdesign stuff) Bill Horton (online stuff) and a host of
others... justgo to your local MicroCenter and
check out the books!"

"Laura LeMay
is the most famous technical writer when it comes
to Internet

development. She wrote the first
comprehensive HTML book in 1994. It was abestseller,
followed by several similar ones. Being a technical writer atSun
Microsystems, she subsequently wrote other books on Java. Her style isvery concise, yet very clear. She is my all-time
reference.John December also produced several
good books, such as the HTML Bible, asearly as
1995."

"I consider John McPhee to be a famous Technical Writer. Though
he is a

journalist, he is wonderfully adept and
discussing technical material."

"I can tell you who the FIRST software technical writer was
(is): Joe

Chapline.Joe
worked for Eckert and Mauchley back in the 40s, and he was the firstperson ever employed just to document the way a software
operating systemworked. I had the pleasure of
inviting him to speak at an InterChangeconference
in the Boston area a few years ago, and he was fascinating. Ieven
held his copy of that first manual - and it could pass muster today!One other possible candidate (with a stretch):Julius
Caesar - some of his military treatises are very technical."